Climate-related risks to central bank independence: the de-politicisation and re-politicisation of the Bank of England in the transition to net zero
James Jackson, Mat Paterson and Dan Bailey (Manchester Metropolitan University) have published a new article with Taylor & Francis online on Çà¹ÏÊÓƵ˜Climate-related risks to central bank independenceÇà¹ÏÊÓƵ™.
Faced with ever-growing climate-related financial risks, the role of central banks in climate governance has intensified debates surrounding central bank independence (CBI).
Informed by elite interviews with UK monetary policy experts and a discourse analysis of Bank of England reports, this article reveals the internal views on re-politicisation of the Bank and CBI catalysed by the mandate to Çà¹ÏÊÓƵ˜facilitate the transition to net zeroÇà¹ÏÊÓƵ™.
We find different interpretations of CBI that are shaped by perceptions of the BankÇà¹ÏÊÓƵ™s existing political status, with some claiming that the Bank is intrinsically apolitical and immune to re-politicisation, and others viewing CBI as fragile or a strategically-deployed discourse.
Across three distinct views of politics, and by extensions CBI, we identify dual dynamics of de-politicisation and re-politicisation that serve to legitimate and de-politicise prior mission creep whilst simultaneously licencing politicising debates on the bankÇà¹ÏÊÓƵ™s institutional evolution.
We demonstrate that the Bank of England is an indispensable case study in the green central banking literature for understanding the political economy of CBI within the context of climate change.